OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE

NFA Grant Deadline Extension & Update for Artists in Puerto Rico

We know that many of you have been busy organizing to support communities in Houston, Mexico, the Caribbean, and beyond. That's why we're extending the NFA deadline for all applicants to October 16, 2017 at 11:59pm Central Standard Time. We hope that this will give you the extra time you need to polish a superb application.

Please note details regarding an additional NALAC grant opportunity for artists and organizations residing in Puerto Rico will be announced soon with a deadline in early 2018. Keep an eye out for those specifics in a separate announcement.

THE LATEST

Across the Americas, How You Can Help

Communities across México, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean are devastated, and your help is needed to support urgent disaster and recovery efforts in the Americas. Please consider supporting these and other initiatives.

ConPRmetidos is a Borinquén-based nonprofit organizing a real-time Maria & Irma Recovery Fund. Funds will be used for long-term relief efforts. They are working together with the Foundation for Puerto Rico in their efforts. Donate here.

The Dominica Hurricane Maria Disaster Relief Fund supports the people of Dominica who have been displaced or need medical support, and provides assistance to those without homes. You can donate here.

If you have time, computer access, and basic internet skills, the Standby Task Force is organizing volunteers to help reference satellite imagery covering areas affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The information will be used to help efforts by the US Coast Guard and the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs. Get involved here.

Reflecting on ILI: Interculturality Can Save Us

The Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) is a year-long rigorous leadership development program for artists, culture bearers, and other arts professionals. The first ILI intensive was held in Mississippi, and you can learn more about it from NALAC President and CEO, María López De León at the Building Intercultural Leadership Panel at the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference in Detroit, MI on October 29, 2017. The next convening will be in San Antonio, Texas, and the application for next year's ILI cohort will open soon!

Most recently, NALAC was on the ground in Lakota Territory last month with thirty Intercultural Leadership Institute fellows for the second of the three convenings organized in conjunction with First Peoples Fund, Alternate ROOTS, and the PA’I Foundation.

We were inspired by all of the voices at the ILI in Lakota Territory, and invite you to hear from some below.

"As part of the immersive Intercultural Leadership Institute, I spent the past week in commune with the Lakota people of South Dakota and a dynamically diverse group of cultural workers from around the country. We held space for one another at the foothills of the Black Hills Mountain, in The Badlands, on Pine Ridge Reservation, at Wounded Knee. While I am still both digesting and processing all that was shared and learned there, I have come to one conclusion: interculturality is the one thing that can save us." Click here to keep reading.

"A strong wind blew across the grasslands as we huddled together, sheltering between vehicles. It was a quiet moment for a group of 50, a time of silence as all gathered close and waited. We stood at the top of a hill near the Wounded Knee Cemetery and the site where a band of Lakota people were massacred in 1890...

"First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota) introduced Tashina Banks Rama (Oglala Lakota / Ojibwe), daughter of Dennis Banks, to share a piece of the second Wounded Knee story when the American Indian Movement occupied the town. After tearful stories, Tashina went around to those gathered, offering tobacco for ceremony and was embraced with long hugs by the those in the group." Read more about the convening.

Development Jobs at NALAC

Join our team in San Antonio! NALAC has an opening for a Chief Advancement Officer who will develop and manage diverse resource development strategies. The second open position is an Advancement Associate who will serve as a key cultivator and solicitor of donors. Check out the job descriptions if you're interested or might recommend this position to a friend!

Travel to MX, Central America, or the Caribbean

Through the rest of 2017, NALAC is offering air travel support through our partnership with Southwest Airlines, as part of our Transnational Cultural Remittances program. Arts administrators, cultural organizers and artists needing travel support to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for arts and culture endeavors can apply for two international round-trip tickets on a rolling basis. Travel must occur before January 1, 2018. Apply now!

Lander, WY | Wyoming Arts Summit

November 2-4, 2017 Lander Community and Convention Center Lander, WY

Registration is now open for the Wyoming Arts Summit. A celebration of the Wyoming Arts Council’s 50th anniversary. The summit offers professional development tracks for arts advocates, administrators, educators, and artists, and will highlight many of Wyoming’s talented visual, performing, literary, and musical artists. NALAC President and CEO, María López De León, will be present to give a keynote speech alongside Kealoha, the first Poet Laureate of Hawai’i, and Savannah Barrett, Director of Programs for Art of the Rural and co-founder of the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange. Register now.

Feature Your Work in the e-Boletín

We love featuring the work of artists and performers in our network, and one way we do so is at the top of our e-Boletíns. Are you interested in seeing your work here? To submit your work for consideration, upload a picture of your art, performance, or still via the Submittable platform.

IN MEMORIAM

In addition to our wonderful volunteers and donors, NALAC's work is supported by the Surdna Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture.

Southwest® is the official airline of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is the nation's premier nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development, and cultivation of the Latino arts field. In this capacity, NALAC stimulates and facilitates intergenerational dialogues among disciplines, languages, and traditional and contemporary expressions.